Why Danger is Exciting - But Only to Some People
This article discusses some of the potential causes of risk
taking and novelty seeking, and why it is stronger in some people and not in
others. The author, Valerie Voon, describes the preference for the unexpected
or new, called ‘novelty seeking,’ and how people who possess this trait are
commonly impulsive and easily bored. Individuals with this preference for
novelty are more likely to take risks, like extreme sports, drugs or other
dangerous behaviors. This is because a novel stimulus is riskier because the
consequences of the stimulus is unknown. The expectation of these new stimuli
is reward, and possibly the desire to avoid loss. In cases of potentially
life-threatening activities, the loss would be death. Several studies have
found that people with a certain dopamine receptor are more likely to be thrill
seekers. This gene variant has also been associated with greater responses to
unexpected rewards in the brain.
Voon also states that individuals who enjoy danger or suffer
from disorders of addiction have different risk tendencies than those who do
not. This directly ties in to what we have been discussing in class regarding
addiction and reward. For people who enjoy thrill seeking, exhibiting risky
behaviors probably activates their mesolimbocortical dopamine system more than
others. So their ventral tegmental area will be more active and communicate to
the prefrontal cortex that the experience was pleasurable and that it should be
repeated. If this is controlled by a specific dopamine receptor coded by a
specific gene variant, then one individual’s tendency for novelty seeking is
literally coded into their DNA, as is some individual's aversion of the same behaviors.
This topic is strongly related to many ideas we learned in class. My blog post discussed the area in which a person lived and how healthy their amygdala is. Your article is closely related to the amygdala and its functions. The structure in the brain is most related to negative emotions, including fear. People who have caused damage to their amygdala could perceive danger as exciting as they are not fully processing the consequences. I like the way that you related this article to addiction and reward. This is important to understand when working with addicts because a psychologist has to be aware of an addict's tendencies and ways to stop dangerous behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that was discussed in class about the mesolimbocortical dopamine system and this article about thrill-seeking both correspond to the neuromechanics of reinforcement that was discussed in my Psychology of Learning class. It was mentioned that Olds and Milner discovered a “reward pathway” in the brain, stimulated by dopamine when reinforcement is introduced. If a reinforcer is repeatedly received, however, people get used to it and builds tolerance for it. As illustrated in this article, when this happens, people tend to seek for that dopamine release they yearn for from other sources; some end up choosing potentially life-threatening activities.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who self identifies as an adrenaline junkie I have been engaged in skydiving and other activities and was thus drawn to this article. We have been discussing the mesolimbic cortical dopamine system which is responsible for our feeling of rewards. More specifically these individuals' anterior cingulate cortex anticipate the positive rewards of involving themselves in such high risk activities. After engaging in such acts, if the experience remains positive it is interpreted by the septal nuclei and pleasure is felt. Storing this feeling in the hippocampus, it only strengthens the anticipation of in the anterior cingulate cortex even more for future activities.
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